With rapid development of mobile Internet, data traffic of mobile communications networks shows an explosive growth tendency. To meet rapidly increasing data requirements of users, a LWA (LTE-WLAN aggregation) technology in which both an LTE (Long Term Evolution) network and a WLAN (Wireless LAN, wireless local area network) provide services for a user terminal starts to be researched. By means of the LWA technology, the user terminal can use radio resources of both the LTE network and the WLAN, so that a transmission bandwidth dramatically increases. Therefore, the user terminal can obtain a higher transmission rate and higher service quality. The WLAN may be WiFi or another local radio access network. The LWA technology may also be referred to as LTE-WLAN multiple stream aggregation (LTE-WLAN MSA), or LTE-WLAN dual connectivity (LTE-WLAN DC), or LTE-WLAN radio integration.
A basic service set (BSS) is a basic component of the WLAN, and generally includes one access point AP and multiple stations (STA). An extended service set (ESS) includes multiple BSSs. Each BSS has a unique identifier, that is, a BSSID or a BSS identifier. Because the BSS generally has one access point AP, the BSSID is generally an identifier of the access point AP, that is, a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the AP. A BSSID, an SSID, and an (H) ESSID can be used to identify a WLAN. Sometimes, to achieve higher accuracy, a WLAN may also be identified by using the foregoing WLAN identifier plus information about a frequency of the WLAN or a channel number of the WLAN.
For the WLAN, a network side service device is an AP, and a user side terminal device is a STA, while for a mobile cellular network, a network side service device is a base station, and a user side terminal device is UE. In a heterogeneous network scenario of the present disclosure that includes a WLAN and a mobile cellular network, a user side terminal device may be referred to as UE or a STA, and can receive services of both networks. For ease of description, in the present disclosure, the user side terminal device is collectively referred to as UE.
As shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of LWA. An eNB (a base station) is connected to a WLAN AP (access point) by using a WT (WLAN termination), and the eNB may be connected to multiple WTs. One WT is connected to at least one AP, where the WT is a logical node that connects a base station of an LTE network and an AP of a WLAN. When the LTE and the WLAN are aggregated, data arrives at the eNB (a line 1) through a core network. The eNB sends some of the data to UE (User Equipment, user terminal) by using an LTE link (a line 3), and sends remaining data to the UE by using a WLAN link (a line 2). Uplink data is sent in a similar manner. The user terminal sends data to the network by using both the LTE link (the line 3) and the WLAN link (the line 2). As shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a specific implementation method of LWA. In step 1, an eNB delivers WLAN measurement configuration information to UE, to instruct the UE to measure a WLAN. The WLAN measurement configuration information includes multiple measurement events. In step 2, the UE sends, to the eNB, information of a WLAN and signal quality of the WLAN that are obtained by means of measurement by the UE.
In an existing technical solution, an eNB needs to configure WLAN measurement configuration information for UE as needed. The WLAN measurement configuration information includes at least one of the following WLAN measurement events: signal quality of a serving WLAN is greater than a first threshold; signal quality of a serving WLAN is less than a second threshold; signal quality of a neighboring WLAN is greater than a sum of signal quality of a serving WLAN and a third threshold; signal quality of a serving WLAN is less than a fourth threshold and signal quality of a neighboring WLAN is greater than a fifth threshold; signal quality of a neighboring WLAN is greater than a sixth threshold; or radio signal quality of a neighboring WLAN is less than a seventh threshold. The UE reports a measurement result to the eNB, provided that one WLAN that satisfies at least one of the configured measurement events is obtained by means of measurement by the UE. Therefore, in a scenario in which WLANs are intensively deployed, reporting of a large quantity of WLAN measurement results may be simultaneously triggered, causing a waste of signaling resources and excessive signaling load.